Visual Basic announcements

This forum is for problems and discussions related to programming
with VB inside Visual Studio for versions starting with the .Net version (2002). Before posting your question,
check if your issue is related to the following categories. In order to get
better response, take a look at How to Use this Forum.

C++ Standards, Extensions, and Interop announcements

There are a couple new (and exciting!) extensions available in the Visual Studio gallery:

PGO Plug-In. This tool improves the user experience for PGO in Visual Studio 2013 by providing a guided experience through the various phases of the PGO process. It also introduces the ability to perform PGO for Windows Store applications targeting x86 and x64 applications and more!

PdbProject Extension.This extension will allow Visual Studio 2012 to open and convert pdb into a vcxproj. The converted project will load as a normal VC project and provide IDE features such as tag browsing, intelli-sense and object browsing.

While there, check out the many other extensions available for Visual Studio and be sure to leave your feedback!

If you have any problems installing Visual Studio or the .NET Framework, please download and run the log collection utility. When that completes, upload %TEMP%\vslogs.cab to an Internet share like http://skydrive.com, which gives you 7GB of free cloud storage using the same Microsoft account you use for these forums. Then share the URL here in this forum with a description of your problem.

CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback.

Many folks have been asking about the emerging "apps for Office" model, and what it means for the future of VSTO. Rest assured that VSTO continues to be alive and well. In fact, many existing automation scenarios continue to be best served by VSTO for now. At the same time, there are many exciting opportunities to look forward in apps for Office: for example, the ability to better integrate with web content and JavaScript/CSS libraries, support for additional programming languages and platforms, support for host applications beyond the desktop versions of Office, and new distribution, lifecycle management, and monetization opportunities through the Office Store.

For VSTO developers in particular, new in this release is the ability to code-sign VSTO solutions with SHA-256 certificates. The latest release also supports Office 2013 right-out-of-the-box without requiring a separate download, and the Office 2013 templates can now target the latest .NET Framework 4.5.1.

Visual Studio 2013 also delivers a broad set of tooling for the new apps for Office and apps for SharePoint. Some highlights include the ability to create MVC SharePoint apps, enhancements around app-publishing, and a new set of tooling around Cloud Business Apps that integrate seamlessly with Office 365 services. Learn more on the apps for Office and SharePoint blog.

Tip:Just like Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio 2013 continues to support the Office 2010 templates. However, to reduce clutter, we have re-categorized the project templates according to the .NET Framework version that they support. So, if you're looking for the Office 2010 templates, be sure to adjust the ".NET Framework" dropdown to ".NET Framework 4.0".

We hope you enjoy Visual Studio 2013 and the many great features that this IDE has to offer!

From here, you should be able to download the *.txt files for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus the imageMso information.Once a file is downloaded, it can be opened in Excel to make it easier to look through all the controls.

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch gives you a simpler and faster way to create high-quality business applications for the desktop and the cloud. Professional developers can extend the functionality of LightSwitch by creating extensions using Visual Studio 2010 Professional, the Visual Studio SDK, and the Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 Extensibility Toolkit. The toolkit provides project types for creating new LightSwitch Extension Libraries and includes templates for creating your own themes, shells, business types, controls, screen templates, and data sources.

You can access the toolkit plus walkthroughs, samples and documentation here on the Developer Center. Please make sure you follow the instructions carefully for installing the toolkit and the prerequisites.

Visual Studio LightSwitch - General Questions announcements

Visual Studio 2015 is the last release of Visual Studio that includes the LightSwitch tooling and we recommend users not begin new application development with LightSwitch. That said, we will continue to support users with existing LightSwitch applications, including critical bug fixes and security issues as per the Microsoft Support Lifecycle. For reference, the mainstream support phase for Visual Studio 2015 is active until 10/13/2020.

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications lets you enable end users to customize your existing applications using Visual Basic and Visual C#. Since the VSTA 2012 release, several changes have been introduced to the licensing model as well as to how you integrate VSTA into your applications:

There is no longer a licensing fee for the VSTA redistributable components. Your organization can distribute and use the VSTA redistributable components free of charge.

VSTA no longer provides its own Visual Studio Environment for authoring macros. Instead, a supported version of Visual Studio Professional (Premium, or Ultimate) is required to develop VSTA macros and add-ins. VSTA has two primary modes of operation: with Visual Studio Professional (Premium, or Ultimate) installed and standalone. In standalone mode, VSTA provides your application with the means to load, compile, and run end user customizations. With a supported version of Visual Studio Professional (Premium, or Ultimate) installed on your user’s machine, VSTA extends that functionality with the means to edit and debug those customizations.

VSTA 2015 supports .NET Framework 4.5.1.

VSTA 2015 presents a simplified API for integrating design-time experiences into your application using either managed (Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET) or unmanaged (Visual C++) code. It simplifies tasks such as finding the installation of Visual Studio, launching the external process, and synchronizing save state, making integration significantly easier than previous versions.

VSTA 2015 provides the ability to upgrade VSTA projects from Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, compile, and run them. It also maintains compatibility with VSTA 2012 and VSTA 2013 projects.

VSTA no longer requires your application host to provide a runtime library in order to run. This gives you the flexibility to choose the method of running user code best tailored to the host application.

Visual Basic announcements

This forum is for problems and discussions related to programming
with VB inside Visual Studio for versions starting with the .Net version (2002). Before posting your question,
check if your issue is related to the following categories. In order to get
better response, take a look at How to Use this Forum.

Visual Basic announcements

This forum is for problems and discussions related to programming
with VB inside Visual Studio for versions starting with the .Net version (2002). Before posting your question,
check if your issue is related to the following categories. In order to get
better response, take a look at How to Use this Forum.

C++ Standards, Extensions, and Interop announcements

There are a couple new (and exciting!) extensions available in the Visual Studio gallery:

PGO Plug-In. This tool improves the user experience for PGO in Visual Studio 2013 by providing a guided experience through the various phases of the PGO process. It also introduces the ability to perform PGO for Windows Store applications targeting x86 and x64 applications and more!

PdbProject Extension.This extension will allow Visual Studio 2012 to open and convert pdb into a vcxproj. The converted project will load as a normal VC project and provide IDE features such as tag browsing, intelli-sense and object browsing.

While there, check out the many other extensions available for Visual Studio and be sure to leave your feedback!

If you have any problems installing Visual Studio or the .NET Framework, please download and run the log collection utility. When that completes, upload %TEMP%\vslogs.cab to an Internet share like http://skydrive.com, which gives you 7GB of free cloud storage using the same Microsoft account you use for these forums. Then share the URL here in this forum with a description of your problem.

CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. You can use CodePlex to create new projects to share with the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on this site and provide feedback.

Many folks have been asking about the emerging "apps for Office" model, and what it means for the future of VSTO. Rest assured that VSTO continues to be alive and well. In fact, many existing automation scenarios continue to be best served by VSTO for now. At the same time, there are many exciting opportunities to look forward in apps for Office: for example, the ability to better integrate with web content and JavaScript/CSS libraries, support for additional programming languages and platforms, support for host applications beyond the desktop versions of Office, and new distribution, lifecycle management, and monetization opportunities through the Office Store.

For VSTO developers in particular, new in this release is the ability to code-sign VSTO solutions with SHA-256 certificates. The latest release also supports Office 2013 right-out-of-the-box without requiring a separate download, and the Office 2013 templates can now target the latest .NET Framework 4.5.1.

Visual Studio 2013 also delivers a broad set of tooling for the new apps for Office and apps for SharePoint. Some highlights include the ability to create MVC SharePoint apps, enhancements around app-publishing, and a new set of tooling around Cloud Business Apps that integrate seamlessly with Office 365 services. Learn more on the apps for Office and SharePoint blog.

Tip:Just like Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio 2013 continues to support the Office 2010 templates. However, to reduce clutter, we have re-categorized the project templates according to the .NET Framework version that they support. So, if you're looking for the Office 2010 templates, be sure to adjust the ".NET Framework" dropdown to ".NET Framework 4.0".

We hope you enjoy Visual Studio 2013 and the many great features that this IDE has to offer!

From here, you should be able to download the *.txt files for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus the imageMso information.Once a file is downloaded, it can be opened in Excel to make it easier to look through all the controls.

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch gives you a simpler and faster way to create high-quality business applications for the desktop and the cloud. Professional developers can extend the functionality of LightSwitch by creating extensions using Visual Studio 2010 Professional, the Visual Studio SDK, and the Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 Extensibility Toolkit. The toolkit provides project types for creating new LightSwitch Extension Libraries and includes templates for creating your own themes, shells, business types, controls, screen templates, and data sources.

You can access the toolkit plus walkthroughs, samples and documentation here on the Developer Center. Please make sure you follow the instructions carefully for installing the toolkit and the prerequisites.

Visual Studio LightSwitch - General Questions announcements

Visual Studio 2015 is the last release of Visual Studio that includes the LightSwitch tooling and we recommend users not begin new application development with LightSwitch. That said, we will continue to support users with existing LightSwitch applications, including critical bug fixes and security issues as per the Microsoft Support Lifecycle. For reference, the mainstream support phase for Visual Studio 2015 is active until 10/13/2020.

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications lets you enable end users to customize your existing applications using Visual Basic and Visual C#. Since the VSTA 2012 release, several changes have been introduced to the licensing model as well as to how you integrate VSTA into your applications:

There is no longer a licensing fee for the VSTA redistributable components. Your organization can distribute and use the VSTA redistributable components free of charge.

VSTA no longer provides its own Visual Studio Environment for authoring macros. Instead, a supported version of Visual Studio Professional (Premium, or Ultimate) is required to develop VSTA macros and add-ins. VSTA has two primary modes of operation: with Visual Studio Professional (Premium, or Ultimate) installed and standalone. In standalone mode, VSTA provides your application with the means to load, compile, and run end user customizations. With a supported version of Visual Studio Professional (Premium, or Ultimate) installed on your user’s machine, VSTA extends that functionality with the means to edit and debug those customizations.

VSTA 2015 supports .NET Framework 4.5.1.

VSTA 2015 presents a simplified API for integrating design-time experiences into your application using either managed (Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET) or unmanaged (Visual C++) code. It simplifies tasks such as finding the installation of Visual Studio, launching the external process, and synchronizing save state, making integration significantly easier than previous versions.

VSTA 2015 provides the ability to upgrade VSTA projects from Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, compile, and run them. It also maintains compatibility with VSTA 2012 and VSTA 2013 projects.

VSTA no longer requires your application host to provide a runtime library in order to run. This gives you the flexibility to choose the method of running user code best tailored to the host application.

Visual Basic announcements

This forum is for problems and discussions related to programming
with VB inside Visual Studio for versions starting with the .Net version (2002). Before posting your question,
check if your issue is related to the following categories. In order to get
better response, take a look at How to Use this Forum.